Stuff I like Part 2

I'm still pretty into all the stuff mentioned in Part 1 (which you'll have to view at www.myspace/iowafarmgirl.com) but during the past year I've discovered some new stuff.

One: Cathedral Hill St. Paul, MN.

The address is quite self-descriptive and for the past year I've been lucky enough to live in this historical neighborhood. Selby Avenue has the vintage, hand-painted-wallpaper-glamour of my favorite restaurant, W.A. Frost, situated within old brownstone apartments. A block over is Summit Avenue, where I live, a street lined with old houses that all have ballrooms and secret passageways. These are not (*eye roll*) mcmansions but unique, fantastic examples of great architecture.

Two: Beethoven. In high school I learned part of Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, recently I decided to learn the entire piece. At first I thought I could do it in a year, then I listed to a recording of the work and realized I'm way out of my league. It's totally fine for you stop reading, listen to a sound clip of the Rondo, Allegro and laugh hysterically at the futility of my endeavor. The one year time table has been multiplied by about 40. This will be just in time for serious nursing home stardom.

Four: I've fallen back in love with the public library. I still believe in building a personal library, but bad memories from a recent move leave me reluctant to buy more heavy objects.

Plus the library is f-r-e-e and when I'm looking at all the available books, CDs and movies I get the same feeling I have when I'm about to spend too much money on shoes. I regularly scour the music section for recordings of upcoming MN Opera productions and can now say a couple things in Russian thanks to some language CDs.

Ahem: Trashy food! I love beef jerky and corn nuts. You wish I was kidding. Fortunately for bystanders, I also enjoy mints and gum.

Punctuality. On average each person spends 42 days of their life waiting for someone else. Yes, I just made that up but any amount time is too much. People making other people wait around is rude and being late is stressful. So we should not do those things.

Six: The Minnesota Opera has a young professionals club called Tempo and last year I joined the board. This is completely fun. We plan all kinds of great stuff, like Opera Taste- a mix of opera and wine tasting (get ready to put it on your calendar!!), and get to hang out at after-parties with singers and artists. With my characteristic flair for moderation I'm now on every possible committee.